As known, outdoor swimming pools are often made dirty by leaves, powder, insects that fall on the water surface. As a rule, they are periodically manually cleaned at the surface level by a pole with a net.
Furthermore, swimming pools normally comprise a filtration and recirculation system that has the task of intaking the water, filtering it and pumping it depurated and disinfected again in the pool.
These systems, diagrammatically shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, normally comprise “skimmers”. Each skimmer comprises an opening 2 in the wall 3 of the pool, for the water intake at the surface level, a removable basket 4, located inside, for keeping the largest floating impurities before that the water reaches one or more filters.
Even if they are cheap and effective, the skimmers are often insufficient, since the water surface movement is slow and is subject to the wind influence that causes the dirt to gather in certain zones of the swimming pool not covered by the skimmers action, and then requiring to remove it manually.
Possible water jets towards the bottom and the sidewalls of the swimming pool can affect the operation of a skimmer, also. Such jets, in fact, create turbulence in the pool that affects the surface flow towards the skimmer.
Systems are also known comprising a net connected to a support capable of sliding on the edges of the swimming pool. Such systems are bulky and have the further drawback of requiring the presence of an operator.
Furthermore, floating self-propelled devices exist comprising a collecting container and a propelling system. However, such devices are not much efficient, since they have a purely translational movement that does not allow covering the whole surface of the swimming pool. Furthermore, it is necessary to control and shift them when they meet an obstacle along their path.